Patient safety: History and recent updates in Japan (2019)

Summary

Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MOHLW) hosted the Third Patient Safety Ministerial Global Summit in April, 2018, in Tokyo, Japan. Healthcare quality including patient safety is one of critical aspects to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Japan has been striving for patient safety improvement around the last 20 years. This article describes some of the recent activities including the new reporting system of death cases due to medical accidents, the reform of patient safety management at advanced treatment hospitals.